If your customer onboarding video needs a ‘Skip’ button, you’re already losing users.People don’t need a tour of every tab. They need just enough to start using your product without feeling dumb or stuck. However, most onboarding videos overexplain, underdeliver, and forget that the goal is to help someone do one thing well and quickly. This guide breaks down how to create onboarding videos that do what they’re supposed to: get users comfortable, confident, and moving forward Along the way, we’ll show you how teams use Trupeer to build onboarding flows. Let’s dive in! 🔍

What is a Customer Onboarding Video?

A customer onboarding video is a short, focused piece of content designed to guide new users through specific tasks or features in your product. It focuses on getting users to their first success as quickly as possible.
Think of it as your digital customer success manager—available 24/7, never has a bad day, and delivers the same helpful experience every single time.

There are three main types of onboarding videos you’ll encounter:

• Welcome videos that set expectations and build excitement

• Feature-specific walkthroughs that tackle one task at a time

• Contextual micro-videos embedded directly in your app where users need them most

🚨 Fact Alert: 74% of people have watched a video to figure out how to use a new app or website—proof that when in doubt, users hit ‘play’ before they hit ‘help’.

Why Video Is Your Most Powerful Onboarding Tool

When someone signs up for your product, you have a narrow window to show them how it works and why it matters. A good video does both. It’s faster than docs, clearer than tooltips, and more scalable than live walkthroughs.

Unlike written instructions, videos give users a sense of momentum. They can see how to complete a task and don’t have to imagine what a button looks like or decode step-by-step user guides.
Video also works across attention spans. Some users will watch the whole thing. Others will skim or jump to the moment they need. Either way, you’re offering help that’s visual, accessible, and always available, without involving your support team.

Plus, engaging video content for onboarding work across your entire customer journey, from initial setup through advanced feature adoption and ongoing support. And when placed at the right point in the onboarding flow, not dumped at the start, the video becomes a targeted nudge. Just enough to get someone unstuck and moving forward.

👀 Did You Know? 97% of people say video is one of the most effective ways to welcome and guide new customers, making it the ultimate onboarding sidekick.

What Makes an Onboarding Video Engaging

Before we dive into creation, let’s talk about what ‘good’ actually looks like. The most effective onboarding videos share several key characteristics.

• They’re short and laser-focused. We’re talking 2-3 minutes max for most tasks. If you can’t explain it quickly, break it into multiple videos

• The visuals are clean and professional—no cluttered desktops or distracting browser tabs. Your screen recording should look like a carefully curated demo environment

• The voiceover sounds natural and conversational, not like someone reading a video script for the first time. Think friendly colleague, not corporate robot

• Each step flows logically into the next with crystal-clear instructions. Users should never wonder, ‘What do I click next?’

• Personalization takes things to the next level. Using the viewer’s name or showing their actual data makes the experience feel custom-built for them

💡 Pro Tip: Don’t forget the bonus ingredient: a touch of delight. Maybe it’s your brand personality shining through, smooth transitions, or just the right tone that makes users smile. These small details transform a functional video into a memorable experience.

Where Onboarding Videos Belong in Your Product

Here’s where most companies get it wrong: they lead with video as the very first experience. New users open your app and immediately get hit with a ‘Watch this quick intro!’ pop-up.
Don’t do this.
Instead, use customer onboarding videos as contextual help. Users should discover them when they need assistance, not when you think they should learn something.
The best placements include:

• Inside onboarding checklists, where each task links to a relevant walkthrough

• Linked from tooltips or help icons, so users can choose when they need extra guidance

• In activation emails or post-signup nudges that guide users back to complete specific actions

Think of your onboarding videos as just-in-time learning resources, not mandatory viewing.

🚨 Fact Alert: 69% of users think companies should use more video in their onboarding process, showing that customers prefer clear, visual guidance over walls of text.

How to Create Engaging Onboarding Videos

Ready to build customer onboarding videos that work? Here’s your step-by-step playbook that doesn’t require a Hollywood budget or months of production time. 🎬

Step #1: Plan your customer onboarding flow

Before you hit record, map out what success looks like for your new users. What’s the shortest path from signup to their first ‘wow’ moment? Most SaaS onboarding follows a similar pattern: Sign-up → Initial setup → First core action → Feature discovery → Ongoing support. But your specific flow might look different.

For example, a project management tool might prioritize: Create first project → Invite team members → Add first task → Set first deadline. Each of these becomes a potential video topic.
The key is identifying your activation metrics first. What actions correlate with long-term retention? These are your video priorities. If users who complete profile setup are 3x more likely to stick around, that’s your first video topic.

Rather than trying to cover everything in your initial video series, focus on the top 3-5 user journeys that drive the most value. You can always expand later based on user feedback and engagement metrics.

💡 Pro Tip: Interview recent customers about their onboarding experience. What confused them? Where did they get stuck? Their feedback reveals the exact moments where video support would be most valuable.

Step #2: Record your screen (don’t overthink it)

Here’s the beautiful thing about AI onboarding videos: you don’t need to nail the perfect take. Starting with a clean desktop and focusing on one task per video is all it takes.

Trupeer’s AI Screen Recorder handles the technical complexity while you focus on clear explanations and smooth navigation. Unlike traditional screen recording, you don’t need to worry about perfect audio quality or flawless delivery—the AI enhancement takes care of those details later.
Setting up your recording environment properly makes a huge difference. A high-resolution display (1920x1080 minimum) ensures your interface elements are visible, while closing unnecessary applications prevents distracting notifications from interrupting your flow.

💡 Pro Tip: One practice run helps familiarize yourself with the workflow, but over-rehearsing can make your explanation sound robotic. A slightly informal tone often feels more authentic than perfectly polished corporate-speak.

The modular approach is also effective here. Multiple short videos are easier to consume than one comprehensive walkthrough, and they’re much simpler to update when your product evolves.

🎥 Trupeer Insight: New customers shouldn’t have to guess where to look. Trupeer’s automated zoom follows your clicks and actions, so the focus stays on the right spot. It makes your walkthrough feel smooth and guided without any extra editing from you.

Guide Viewer Attention Using Trupeer

Step #3: Use AI to turn it into a studio-quality experience

This is where the magic happens, transforming your raw screen recording into professional customer onboarding videos without the traditional learning curve of video editing software.
Traditional video editing requires hours of work and specialized skills, but AI video editors like Trupeer address the biggest pain points that prevent teams from creating video content: time, technical complexity, and production quality.

Trupeer automatically generates natural-sounding voiceovers that sync perfectly with your screen actions. Choose from hundreds of accents and speaking styles, or upload your own voice.
Let’s say you recorded a silent product walkthrough showing how to set up integrations in your app. The AI watches your recording, sees you clicking through settings and connecting to Slack, then generates clear, professional narration that explains each step as it’s happening.
Another plus point? AI voiceover delivers consistent, professional quality across entire video libraries.

Perhaps most importantly, Trupeer removes inevitable ‘umms,’ long pauses, and confused moments that happen during recording. The final video flows smoothly from one step to the next, maintaining viewer engagement throughout.
Content creators can focus on demonstrating workflows clearly, knowing that stumbles or hesitation moments get cleaned up automatically.
The result feels natural and conversational while remaining polished and professional. 💼

Step #4: Make it accessible

Great customer onboarding videos work for everyone. Add captions for accessibility and to accommodate users who prefer watching without sound.
Think about distribution, too. Embed videos directly in your product interface, include them in onboarding emails, and add them to your help documentation. The more touchpoints you create, the more likely users are to find and use your content when they need it most.

Your onboarding videos should feel like natural extensions of your product experience, not separate learning materials users have to seek out elsewhere.
Consider creating video transcripts for SEO benefits and additional accessibility. Search engines can index text content, making tutorials discoverable through organic search.

Beyond basic accessibility, think about different learning styles and technical comfort levels. Some users prefer step-by-step guidance, while others want to see the big picture first. Some learn better with visual cues, others with detailed explanations. Creating content that accommodates these differences ensures broader adoption and success across diverse user bases.

🎥 Trupeer Insight: Want to know if your onboarding videos land? Trupeer’s video analytics show you where viewers drop off, rewind, or skip. You see exactly what’s working and what needs a tweak, so your next update is based on real data, not guesses.

Track Viewer Engagement Easily With Trupeer

Best Practices for Creating Customer Onboarding Videos

A forgettable onboarding video is worse than none at all. It wastes the user’s time, adds friction, and tells them you didn’t think through their first experience. A great one, on the other hand, feels like a quick shortcut to value.

Here’s how to get there. 🚀

1. Match videos to high-friction points

Look at where most drop-offs happen in your onboarding funnel. If 40% of users abandon setup at ‘connect calendar,’ create a quick, focused clip just for that step and embed it right in the UI.

2. Use real-world context

Make your examples relatable. Instead of ‘Project 1’ or ‘Task ABC,’ use simple, realistic names that match your audience’s industry or workflow.

For a CRM onboarding video, name the lead ‘New Website Inquiry’ instead of ‘Sample Contact.’

🎥 Trupeer Insight: Some customers will happily watch a full video while others just want the quick steps. Trupeer takes your onboarding walkthrough and turns it into a written user guide with screenshots, step titles, and summaries so everyone can learn their way.

Shubham Sadavat from Zetwork shares: “At Zetwerk, we have distributed teams across geographies and functions. Knowledge transfer across hundreds of tools is a hassle. Trupeer helps us fix that at scale - with rich videos and guides that live forever.”

Support Every Learning Style With Trupeer

3. Layer in ‘watch later’ flexibility

Not every user will watch the video right away. Include timestamps and chapter markers so they can skip to the part they need later.
For example, a YouTube-hosted onboarding playlist can include chapters like ‘Importing Contacts’ and ‘Setting Permissions’ for quick navigation.

4. Match video length to topic complexity

The ‘all onboarding videos should be under 2 minutes’ rule is misleading. The complexity of the task should drive length, but with no wasted time. If you want to show how to upload a profile photo, a 60-second clip is more than enough. For configuring a multi-layered automation workflow, a 5-7 minute video with clear section markers might be more appropriate.

➡️ Read More: Best Onboarding Software To Explore

Help Customers Hit the Ground Running With Trupeer

Getting customers up to speed should feel effortless, not like sitting through a lecture. The best customer onboarding videos cut straight to what matters and give people the confidence to take action right away.
Trupeer gives you everything you need to make that happen. Record your screen without stress, let AI clean up mistakes, add a voiceover that sounds like a pro, and turn your video into a clear written guide.
Not convinced yet? Hear it from Ema’s Founder Office, GTM and Partnerships Lead: “Our entire product team uses it and can't stop gushing about it! We create personalized demos for our customers in minutes.”
What used to take hours now happens in minutes, and the result feels polished without losing that human touch.

Try Trupeer for free today! ✅

FAQs

1. What should a customer onboarding video include?

A good customer onboarding video should guide new users through the most important steps they need to take to start using your product effectively. It often includes a quick welcome, a clear explanation of the product’s core features, and a walkthrough of the first actions a user should complete. 
Adding product walkthrough videos, screen recording tutorials, and voiceover onboarding videos can make the content easier to follow and more helpful for different learning styles.

2. How long should a customer onboarding video be?

Most customer onboarding videos work best when they are short and focused, ideally between two and five minutes. The goal is to give users just enough information to get started without overwhelming them. 
For more complex SaaS onboarding, it can help to break the content into a short series of user training videos instead of creating one long video.

3. How can I make my onboarding videos more engaging?

To create engaging onboarding videos, keep the pace lively, use clear visuals, and pair them with an enthusiastic, professional voiceover. Show real in-product actions through screen recording tutorials and avoid long blocks of text. Highlight benefits as you walk through features so viewers understand why each step matters. 
Using customer success onboarding examples or short stories about real use cases can also make the content feel more relatable.

4. Can AI help create onboarding videos?

Yes, AI can make creating onboarding videos faster and more efficient. AI onboarding videos created with tools like Trupeer let you record your screen once and automatically generate polished customer onboarding content. This can include professional voiceovers, captions, and even multiple language versions without extra editing. 
AI video creation saves time and ensures your onboarding materials are always up to date.

5. What are the common mistakes to avoid in onboarding videos?

Common mistakes to avoid in onboarding videos include making them too long, using unclear visuals, skipping important first steps, or focusing only on features instead of showing how they help the user. 
Avoid slow pacing, unnecessary jargon, and outdated product walkthrough videos. Make sure the content stays accurate and is part of a complete onboarding strategy, not just a one-off video.